Global SDG Synthesis Coalition
The Global SDG Synthesis Coalition led much of the groundwork for ESIC within the UN and broader multilateral system, played a key role in making the case for ESIC, and helped to co-lead the planning process. The Coalition is now playing a central role in co-building ESIC and ensuring it achieves its desired impacts.
The Coalition:
- supported the convening of an event as part of Action Day 2 in the Summit of the Future preceding General Assembly high-level week 2024 where the original ESIC announcement was made (21 September 2024), and its contributions were documented in a Nature editorial published just before the event and its support of the two announcements appeared in a statement published at the time of the event
- co-led the ESIC planning process from January through June 2025 as members of the planning-process secretariat (Kerry Albright and Shiv Bakrania) and the governance planning group (Isabelle Mercier and Andrea Cook)
- provided input to the five working groups and governance planning group at key junctures in the planning process
- issued a statement in response to the announcement about funding, foundational investments, and transitional arrangements made in the UN’s Goals Lounge 21 September 2025.
The Coalition now holds a grant from the Wellcome Trust to supports its ongoing contributions to ESIC, including the year-1 foundational investments. Its priorities include:
- priority setting for the living evidence syntheses to be launched and maintained by our sectoral hubs
- demand-side engagement within the UN and broader multilateral system, including supporting the engagement of UN Country Teams and UN regional collaborative platforms by our regional hubs
- repository development and harmonization, which will support the incorporation of UN evaluations in our open data system and hence in evidence syntheses produced by our sectoral hubs
- synthesis generation and standards/guidelines, which aligns with our growing interest in methods transformation
- support national evaluation-capacity development efforts to incorporate evidence synthesis, which aligns closely with our commitment to capacity sharing.
One coalition leader sits on the Steering group, three Coalition leaders (Isabelle Mercier, Andrea Cook and Shiv Bakrania) sit on the Communities council, and one Coalition leader (Shiv Bakrania) sits on the time-limited open data system planning group.